Ceilings of habitable structures, and especially office buildings often have a type of ceiling referred to as a “suspended ceiling.” Such a suspended ceiling is suspended below a more rigid upper portion of a room by suspending a plurality of T-bars within a plane and then fitting ceiling tiles between these T-bars, typically by resting upon ledges extending laterally from the T-bars. The suspended ceiling beneficially hides HVAC equipment, cabling for telecommunications, wiring for power and other service conduits, ducts, etc. from the habitable space. The ceiling tiles also can provide some degree of insulation so that the space above the suspended ceiling does not need to be conditioned along with the rest of the habitable space. Access to the utility space above the suspended ceiling can easily be provided through the ceiling tiles by moving the ceiling tile out of the way, as the ceiling tiles typically are not fastened to the T-bars but only rest upon the ledges of the T-bars.
In one typical configuration the T-bars include long T-bars which can run parallel with each other and then short T-bars extending perpendicularly between the long T-bars to complete the grid. In one embodiment, these long T-bars are two feet apart so that the short T-bars are each two feet long. In other embodiments, the long T-bars can be further from each other (e.g. four feet apart or more).
Various structures benefit from being mounted within the suspended ceiling. For instance, lighting structures can have a two by two size or a two by four size and readily fit within a suspended ceiling between long T-bars and between short T-bars (removing one short T-bar to fit a two foot by four foot light). Furthermore, HVAC registers are often provided in a two foot by two foot size to fit where a ceiling tile is skipped. Further, public address systems and ambiance providing music systems are known to be mounted into the suspended ceiling between the T-bars, in the form of loudspeakers.
While suspended ceilings are successful in achieving the function described above, the standardization of ceiling tile sizes as well as lighting sizes, air conditioning register sizes and loud speaker sizes can cause a ceiling to be limited in the way that it can appear to a relatively small subset of appearances. An architect or other designer can select ceiling tiles having different textures or colors, or can select T-bars having different profiles to provide limited interest and uniqueness to an office space or other space having a suspended ceiling. However, the options are few. Furthermore, ceilings can take on a somewhat “cluttered” appearance when filled with lighting, HVAC registers and loudspeakers. In some instances it is desirable for the ceiling to be more uniform without as many different visual structures competing for the attention of a person in such a space. Finally, it is desirable to give architects and other designers options in the form of functional elements for suspended ceilings so that such architects or other designers can fully utilize their creative talent to design an optimal workspace or other environment within a building having a suspended ceiling.